Radu Jude is writing a feature titled Frankenstein in Romania with Sebastian Stan set to star, the director said in a recent interview. Jude described the concept as beginning with the documented history of CIA “black sites” in Romania roughly two decades ago and merging that reality with the Frankenstein myth, adding that he pitched the idea directly to Stan and has begun work on the script. He cautioned that development will take time.
Jude also said Stan, who was born in Constanța before emigrating with his mother, initiated the conversation about a collaboration. The actor’s Romanian roots and recent interest in adventurous material have fueled online speculation about how the film might reframe Shelley’s tale within contemporary histories. Jude has not announced production details or a start date.
The director’s premise touches on a sensitive chapter that has been established in court records: the European Court of Human Rights found in 2018 that Romania hosted a secret CIA detention facility between 2003 and 2005, ordering the state to investigate and acknowledge abuses tied to the site. Jude’s remarks suggest the new film will engage that history in fictional form rather than as a docudrama.
Frankenstein in Romania would follow a prolific stretch for Jude. Earlier this year he won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival for Kontinental ’25, and he arrived at Locarno this week with Dracula, which has North American distribution and is described by programmers as a radical, politically tinged comedy. Those projects underscore Jude’s recent pattern of using familiar genre touchstones to critique institutions and national myths.
The project will join a crowded field of Frankenstein screen interpretations, including a high-profile version premiering at the Venice Film Festival before a global streaming release this fall. Jude’s take, by contrast, appears aimed at a Romania-set narrative that intertwines state secrecy with a creator-and-creation parable, potentially giving Stan a vehicle that links his biography to a locally rooted story.
